Every year, the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg becomes more than just a venue. For two days it transforms into a crucible of ideas, ambition, and possibility.
This year, from 22 to 23 September 2025, more than 1,000 women leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and visionaries gathered for the Standard Bank Top Women Empowerment Conference, hosted by Topco Media. The theme, Her Power. Africa’s Future., signaled a bold ambition: to shape not only the lives of women in business and society, but the future of the continent itself.
Marking its 10th anniversary, the conference has grown from a platform of recognition and networking into a powerhouse for action. While previous editions inspired conversations about the role of women in driving transformation, the 2025 programme was designed to generate tangible outcomes. Among the innovations this year was the launch of PitchPower Networking, powered by Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa. Here, entrepreneurs stepped onto a stage with only two minutes to pitch their ideas to investors, corporate buyers, and potential partners.
The speaker line-up reflected the stature of the event. Government leaders such as Ms Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, the Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, and Gauteng MEC for Finance and Economic Development, Lebogang Maile, shared the stage with prominent business figures including Simone Cooper Head of Business and Commercial Banking South Africa of at Standard Bank Group, Rachel Kolisi, and Disa Mpande. Their collective voices tackled big issues, bridging gender gaps in leadership pipelines, closing the tech divide, and dismantling barriers to women’s economic participation.
Naledzani Mosomane, Head of Enterprise & Supplier Development for Business and Commercial Banking South Africa at Standard Bank Group, says her panel was about unpacking the real barriers that women entrepreneurs continue to face.
“The panel discussions from the 2025 Top Womenl really focused on understanding some of the challenges that women entrepreneurs face within South Africa and across the continent. We explored the support mechanisms available to women in general, and not just women entrepreneurs. The panels were diverse, offering valuable insights into the trends we are seeing across various industries in relation to women and SME development,” advanced Mosomane
She stressed that in business, access to funding remains a central obstacle.
“It is mainly driven by legal and regulatory challenges or barriers. In some countries, women do not own land, or they do not have those land ownership rights, which impacts their ability to get access to funding. Poor financial education is another challenge. To add to this, there is evidently also a number of women who experience imposter syndrome in rooms dominated by older men, in corporate. which can be an intimidating space, particularly for women of colour.”
Mosomane highlighted Standard Bank’s commitment to tackling these barriers. “We really do have a holistic business and commercial banking offering. Within our Enterprise and Supplier Development programme, we have a specific stream focused on women in business, our Basalidi business development programme, which is specifically for black-owned businesses that are at least 51% black owned. We have run Basali for four years, supporting around 600 women, and have disbursed R4.5m to women that have participated in the programme. We also track and measure how many women-owned businesses receive procurement opportunities spend, to make sure we’re making strides in creating supply chain opportunities for women in business.”
The conference was not only about corporates, but also about showcasing practical models of empowerment. KFC Africa’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Andra Nel, shared the fast-food giant’s journey in developing a pipeline of women leaders. “We started a journey a couple of years ago where we had lots of incredible female talent in our business, but they just were not breaking through to the top leadership positions. So we started Women on the Move, which is an intentional 12-month leadership journey designed to create leadership bench in our business.”
Nel explained how the programme grew into a broader initiative. “We also knew that it had to go far beyond head office and our franchisees, so we created Space. Space is a repeatable playbook that allows the inclusion of broader voices. It starts the inclusion journey and creates a safe and brave space for everybody in the business. We could keep it to ourselves, but we believe we have got a responsibility not just to make a difference in our own corner. We have democratised it, we are open for business for anybody that wants to take the Space material and implement it in their business. Wel train facilitators, we provide support, but really it is about paying it forward.”
Nel, who herself was part of the programme’s first cohort in 2019, reflected on its impact.
“There’s nobody whose job is to run Women on the Move. It is alumni who run it, because when you know the impact it’s had on you, you want to keep investing into it. Ultimately, it is about giving women the safe and brave spaces they need to show up fully in every role they hold.”
What sets the 2025 Top Women Conference apart is its emphasis on accountability. Organisers and sponsors alike insisted that success would not be measured by how inspiring the speeches were, but by how many deals were signed, how many businesses grew, and how many commitments were honoured in the months that followed. Partners such as merSETA, Vodacom, Harmony Gold Mining, Telkom, and the Gauteng Tourism Authority backed up their words with investments in practical session tracks and support for implementation.
The theme Her Power. Africa’s Future., was more than a tagline. It was a challenge and a promise: a challenge to women to take space and seize opportunities, and a promise that when women thrive, Africa thrives with them. The ripple effects, new businesses, stronger families, empowered communities, are the building blocks of a more inclusive economy.
By the end of the Conference, the hope was that every woman in attendance felt not only inspired but equipped. Equipped with new knowledge, fresh energy, and practical contacts to take back to her business, community, or workplace. It will be in the mentoring calls, the signed deals, and the new projects that would be launched in the weeks to come, that the true legacy of the Standard Bank Top Women Conference 2025 will be written.